GLSL now in 10.4 sort of....

Well I just played with Xcode and shader builder at the local reseller. GLSL is now in 10.4 but only works through software rendering... I still don't see the shader_language_100 extension as of yet. But the code I through at shader builder ran fine so you can play around with GLSL at least for now, just don't expect to run it in your games I guess, or be optimal speed conditions.

Whew! Sounds like it's just a tease then. This is my first official word, since my copy is still on the way and I don't get dev seeds. I'll take it as good bad news that Shader Builder does GLSL, but doesn't work.

Sad to hear. I had GLSL as my primary plan for learning shader programming. So what should I use then? Some other language? Or should I learn GLSL on the "dark side" and bring it to the Mac once Apple get their act together?

Mars_999 Wrote:Well I just played with Xcode and shader builder at the local reseller.

Argh! Wish I could've played with Xcode at the Apple store. I asked one of the workers if any of the machines had the developer tools installed, and he just gave me a blank look and said "uhh, no" like "what are you smoking?"

Oh well, Tiger coming tomorrow for home...

Sucks about the GLSL stuff... I've been wanting to play with that a bit too. And yeah, it seems like Apple is always behind on the 3D support compared to Windows, perhaps due to the non-emphasis on games (or is this just my imagination?). I suspect (hope) that sooner or later they'll turn their guns that direction and will be technologically ahead in 3D once again.

The reason that GLSL didn't make full spec in 10.4 is that they had trouble making it fast enough, so they focused on Core Image/Video (since that is what most people will use anyway). So, I'd expect it to be supported in a not-too-distant future.

Puzzler183, FX Composer is HLSL only, right? I know little about HLSL, but I want GLSL, since it is the open standard and what is likely to be supported on all platforms (eventually). (I assume that HLSL and GLSL are not compatible.) After all, I want to use it for Mac games.

Are there similar tools for GLSL, for Windows or Linux (while I wait for the Mac solution)?